Perhaps it took a few of us a bit longer, however, to come to this realization.  After all, you would think that if Townsend and company could fall short of lofty expectations, it would be with SYL in the live setting.   Logic dictates that the band's cacophonous yet catchy blitzkrieg of beautiful noise would find its undoing on stage, resulting in all the aural intricacies seeping into one another to create some amorphous, barely recognizable blob.  In short, I must admit that I expected this, SYL's third release, to be a convoluted, messy affair - the revelation that the band is indeed mortal.

But this is Devin Townsend we're talking about, and to sell short or underestimate anything he is proud enough to leave his indelible mark upon is errant.  So how does he continue to constantly push himself to even greater extremes while consistently churning out near perfect music, even in the unpredictable confines of the concert hall?  Perhaps it is reflective of a quasidivine ability not necessarily to defy the logic that ultimately breeds our doubts, but to create a logic of his own.  So it is with this in mind that I advise you to set your doubts aside, press play, and prepare to be battered and bruised.

No Sleep Till Bedtime contains seven songs recorded on tour in Melbourne, Australia, with two studio tracks previously available only on the Japanese import of City.  There is some concern, however, about the tracks chosen for the CD.  It seems that there are those who are a tad upset that the first four songs of No Sleep are the first four songs of City - even in the same order.  For most bands, this would probably be unacceptable, especially if you have more than one album from which to cull a setlist.  However, SYL is unique in that while each song stands firmly on its own, it is also an integral part of a greater, more nebulous flow that appears to eminate from the creative core of the artist.  In other words, the songs mesh together for a purpose, and to fiddle with the order of the songs would compromise and perhaps even damage the integrity of the whole.  That is why the band can pull off such a stunt, even in concert.

So it is with tracks five and six, "SYL" and "In the Rainy Season," respectively, that the band finally decides to dip into the back catalog -  the mindnumbing debut Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing.  This is followed by a live rendition of the hilarious "homage" - and you thought homages were supposed to be respectful - to all things metal ("and the cheesy voices that come with announcing it") in the only truly new track on the CD, "Far Beyond Metal."  While it doesn't veer off into any new musical directions - as if we'd want it to - it does showcase Townsend's humor, which is normally relegated to hidden soundbites about his "hairy anus."  

As previously mentioned, the final two tracks, "Japan," and "Centipede," were originally bonus tracks on the Japanese releases of Heavy and City, respectively.  And while it's cool to hear something that is new to the majority of us in the West from SYL, I can see why these didn't make the cut for the American and European releases.  With both songs, the band goes more for an atmospheric vibe, i. e. "Spirituality" from City, which sounds good, but doesn't quite stack up to the majority of the band's ouvre, especially within the overall vibe of City.  But any new SYL is a welcome addition, so I'm certainly not complaining.

With No Sleep Till Bedtime, Devin Townsend and company once again reiterate just how seemingly effortless it is for them to kick the living shit out of the vast majority of bands these days, especially on stage.  And that's my opinion, from one asshole to another.